[FRIAM] Revising the American Revolution

[Merle Lefkoff]

Nick, the problem here is context.  Time moves on and change happens, both
positive and negative.  Now we have post-colonialism, BLM, and #metoo.
What I think is interesting is that these internet-driven movements create
a more distributed "Hero" cohort, whose charisma doesn't lead to worship,
but perhaps leads to a different kind of celebrity.  Of course, all heroes
are human and thus always flawed, except for David Miliband and
Mikhail Gorbachev. My old boss, Jimmy Carter, was also pretty good, but
remember--unlike Woody Allen--he did lust after women in his heart.

On Sat, Oct 23, 2021 at 12:09 PM <thompnickson2 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi, everybody,
>
>
>
> I know.  Who has time to listen to podcasts.  Most of them are redundant
> and so can be listened to while making chicken pot pie.  But every once in
> a while there is one I have to listen to twice because it acquaints me with
> a bunch of stuff I never will dive into but which I really want to know.
>
>
>
>
> https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-story-of-americas-founding-you-werent-taught-in-school/id1548604447?i=1000539039484
>
>
>
> The interviewee here Woody Houlton, a promoter of the 1619 Project, whose
> goal is to recast the American revolution and particularly the constitution
> as counter revolutionary moves.  It puts me in mind of Charles Beard, an
> American historian who wrote in the 30’s a materialist history of the US
> which was largely buried during the McCarthy era.  (I hope I have this
> right, John)  The REAL revolution, on this account occurs after the Civil
> War with the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments.   What I love about this is
> that illuminates for me what is going on in our current debates over
> textualism.  The Textualists are trying to get us back to the pre-Civil War
> constitution which was dedicated to preserving the prerogatives of the
> privileged classes.  That’s the world they hanker for.   Another bell it
> rings for me concerns “cancel culture”.  Washington and Jefferson were in
> many ways, vile men:  Both were voracious land speculators in stolen Indian
> land and Jefferson, in his Idyllic Monticello, literally lived on top of
> the underground habitations of his slaves.
>
>
>
>
> What do we do when we discover that people who have achieved great things
> have also done great harms.  Basically it comes down to, Am I allowed to
> watch a Woody Allen Movie?  Perhaps, if I were to watch a Woody Allen
> movie, it would mean that I was NOT watching an equally good movie by an
> unknown film guy, that our worship of Lee and Washington and Jefferson
> crowds out the accomplishments of lesser known figures.   Shall we instead
> worship MLK, who I guess was an infamous philanderer?
>
>
>
> I think the problem here is with WORSHIP, full stop.  But, then, if we
> don’t stand together in admiration of other people, how do we stand
> together.  How do we achieve coalition without charisma?
>
>
>
> Nick
>
> Nick Thompson
>
> ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com
>
> https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/
>
>
>
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-- 
Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D.
Center for Emergent Diplomacy
emergentdiplomacy.org
Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

mobile:  (303) 859-5609
skype:  merle.lelfkoff2
twitter: @merle110
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